


t-shirts with stretched necks

by markleegalaxies



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Birthday, Birthday Fluff, Dotae if you squint, Fluff, Gen, Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung-centric, dochi makes a cameo, dojae if you squint, dowoo if you squint, essentially all the members loving doyoung on his birthday!!, happy doyoung day!!, no romantic ship but
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-18 16:47:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29121420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/markleegalaxies/pseuds/markleegalaxies
Summary: Doyoung wants to spend the day quietly and tame on his birthday, but with the other members scurrying around and a dragging him all over the place, he doesn’t think he’ll receive the tame atmosphere he’s hoping for. Not that he’s surprised.
Relationships: but if you squint you might be able to find one amongst many potential ones, no specified relationship
Comments: 4
Kudos: 73





	t-shirts with stretched necks

The sunlight is the one thing which wakes Doyoung up, since he doesn’t particularly like the loud sound of a blaring alarm. The hum of his humidifier is already loud enough, sometimes loud enough to rip him from his slumber. He needs a new one, but he’s been too lazy to spend the time and actually look through potential humidifiers. 

He’ll survive anyways. 

Doyoung makes a grab for his phone, always being the first thing he does after taking a minute or five to breathe and blink all of his sleepiness away. It’s bright outside, which means it can’t be too early in the morning. The beams of sunlight that have managed to bleed brought the cracks of his curtains warms a strip of his blanket, and he can even feel the heat on his leg underneath the thick material. 

His phone lock screen tells him that it’s 10:29 am on February first, and he hums with a small, sleepy smile on his face. 

It’s his birthday. 

His notifications are flooded with missed calls from his parents and brother, along with messages from his family and friends. There are even some messages from the 127 group chat, which is ironic considering how he sees them everyday. 

Doyoung goes through his brother’s messages first before answering a few others, and then calls his parents. It’s nice to catch up, and his mother gets a little emotional, almost taking Doyoung down with her, but he manages to keep calm until their phone call is over. 

Doyoung rubs his hands down his face and taps his cheeks a few times to wake himself up even more, enough to convince himself that a warm shower is more appealing than sitting under his warm blankets. 

The prospect of washing all he's sweat during the night ends up winning, and he finds himself listening carefully for a few moments to hear if the bathroom is unoccupied or not. He can’t decipher much, but decides to take a chance as he shuffles his feet into the matching slippers he won with Taeyong all those months ago, and grabs a towel and some clothes. 

It sounds quiet when he opens the door and walks into the hallway, and his shuffling footsteps echo down the hall in the silence. He kind of appreciates that, since he’d rather not be caught in a conversation while he still hasn’t brushed his teeth. Doyoung really, really hates talking without brushing his teeth first. 

Deeming that he deserves to use all the hot water today if he wanted to, Doyoung takes his time under the spray of the shower. He takes longer than he would’ve normally, but decides that their schedules starting later at night is the company’s birthday present to him. And he’ll shamelessly take it in stride, at this point. It’s not like he has anything to lose. 

His skincare follows, and then he slips into his comfortable clothes. Almost immediately when he’s done getting dressed, his stomach grumbles, and hunger claws at his insides. 

Breakfast sounds ideal right now, so after Doyoung leaves his towel to dry over the back of the chair in his room, he pulls socks over his feet and then pads into the kitchen. 

He expects not to see anyone since it’s still quiet around the fifth floor, so he’s surprised when he sees someone standing over the stove, their back turned to him. 

It’s easy to tell who it is, since Doyoung has spent so much time with all his group members. That doesn’t mean he isn’t surprised though, because the last person he expects to see in the kitchen today is,

“Taeil hyung?”

Doyoung can’t hide the confusion in his tone, but it doesn’t seem like Taeil minds, when he turns around with a sleepy smile on his face. His face is still a little puffy, and the hood of his grey hoodie is covering his hair. He looks smaller than usual when he wakes up, as always, with his shorts leaving a lot of his legs bare, and his hoodie falling past his hips. 

But he’s always comfortable, so Doyoung has a lot of respect for that at the end of the day. 

“Good morning, happy birthday,” he smiles, in the gentle way he always does whenever it’s morning. Or whenever it’s someone’s birthday. Doyoung guesses that in that sense, Taeil is always gentle. “Just woke up?”

“Took a shower,” Doyoung answers, taking a seat on the table, watching Taeil from his chair. He’s swimming in fabric. “Thank you. What are you making?”

The smell coming from whatever Taeil is throwing around in his frying pan wafts over to Doyoung’s nose, effectively causing his stomach to clench with hunger. He’s not too sure when he had dinner last night, but it’s clear that it’s been too long since he last ate. He’s thinking about what to make for breakfast when Taeil answers his question, scooping the contents of his pan onto a plate. 

“Your breakfast,” he answers cheerily, more cheerily than he usually is in the morning. But Doyoung guesses that if he’s been awake for a while, he shouldn’t really expect anything else. 

“Mine?” Doyoung questions in confusion, his eyes wide as he stares at the plate and bowl Taeil slides in front of him, fried rice and seaweed soup presented. “You made soup?” he questions immediately upon the right, and he’d feel embarrassed about letting his genuine shock show—but he can’t help it. The last time Doyoung checked, Taeil could whip up a fantastic rice cake soup, and that’s about it when it came to the soup department. 

“Well don’t sound so surprised,” Taeil answers drily, before taking a seat opposite of Doyoung. “I can try when I want it! Which reminds me, if it isn’t edible, don’t tell me to my face, okay? I have pride,” he sniffs, and it makes more sense now in Doyoung’s head. 

“Thank you,” he says again, eyeing the meal presented in front of him and then back to Taeil, who smiles softly again. “Really. Thank you hyung.”

Taeil waves it off, but Doyoung can see his smile spread wider. 

Like Taeil has warned, the soup isn’t the best Doyoung has had. But it isn’t inedible either, so he finishes it all over small talk with Taeil. Taeil can follow a recipe to save his life, and he wasn’t completely useless in the kitchen. He doesn’t really care for the taste anyways, Doyoung is warmed at the fact that Taeil even took the time and effort to prepare this for him. He’s touched, and he knows he won’t stop talking about this for a while.

Doyoung tells Taeil he’ll wash the dishes, after much protest from Taeil. But no one likes washing the dishes anyway, so Taeil lets him after half a minute of half-assed insistence. 

It’s still relatively quiet around the dorm, which isn’t surprising for the lot of them. Sometimes, the only signs of life peek out at mid afternoon. 

When Doyoung is done with the dishes, Taeil says he’s going back up to the tenth floor to shower. Doyoung bids him goodbye and says thank you once more, and is about to head back to his room to grab a book, when the front door opens again not even a minute after Taeil had left. 

“Doyoungie,” Taeyong's familiar voice calls as he steps foot into their dorm, plastic bags rustling in his hands as he toes his shoes off. “Happy birthday!”

Doyoung peers his head to look directly at Taeyong the same moment the door swings shut behind the older boy, and he’s watching, blankly blinking for a second, before Taeyong moves quickly. He puts the bags down on their dining table, and then wraps Doyoung in a fierce hug. 

Doyoung is constantly reminded, and taken aback by how strong Taeyong actually is, and it’s the same today, as he hears his bones crack dangerously the tighter Taeyong’s arms become. 

But he’s not one to turn away from a hug from his best friend, so he reciprocates all while moaning in pain. All that seems to earn him is Taeyong’s hand clapping onto his back twenty six times, and then letting go, leaving his body sore all over. 

“Come here just to kill me?” Doyoung groans, twisting his body from side to side from above his hips, trying to get feeling back in his torso, and trying to distract himself from the way his back aches. 

“Came here just to fatten you up for my oven,” Taeyong says instead, grabbing Doyoung’s hand and pulling him towards the bags he had deposited onto the dining table earlier. “So eat lots and eat well. I look forward to what I can do with you,” he jokes, twisting two fingers right under Doyoung’s ribs, and causing him to fold in half in trying to escape the feeling. 

“This feels like your present more than mine,” the younger sniffs, but he does look around the bags nonetheless. They’re filled to the brim with all of his favourite snacks. “I should fine you for causing bodily harm on my birthday.”

“Don't fine me, I just spent all my money,” Taeyong groans, pulling out a chair and taking a seat. 

“On snacks?” Doyoung asks incredulously. 

“On your  _ birthday gift. _ ” 

“So… these snacks?”

“No, you moron!” Taeyong tsks, rolling his eyes before he runs a hand through his hair. It’s been getting longer recently—he should probably cut it. Doyoung offered cutting it himself a week or so ago, and then he got an earful about why Taeyong would never trust him around his head with a pair of scissors. He’s pretty sure that’s a lie though, since Taeyong had admitted to allowing Doyoung to do many other things before. A haircut couldn’t be that bad in comparison. “An actual gift. But I won’t give it to you now. I want to give it to you when you’re sleepy and can’t yell at me for how much I spent.” 

“That’s not very reassuring,” Doyoung squints, tentatively opening a bag of dried fruits. “How much was it?”

“Well, I can’t tell you that, now can I?” Taeyong scoffs, and he looks smug. Infuriatingly smug. Doyoung wonders why he can’t even catch a break on his birthday, but then accepts the fact that it would’ve been weird if he  _ did.  _ He guesses he appreciates the normalcy. He appreciates Taeyong, in that sense.

“You’re awful,” Doyoung mutters around a mouthful of snacks, and all Taeyong does is smile blindingly at him. It shouldn’t be allowed, Doyoung thinks. 

“You love me.”

Doyoung does, but he won’t say it just so that Taeyong doesn’t leave satisfied. 

He’s finished his dried fruit and is about to grab another snack from the bag when the front door bursts open again. Doyoung had been so sure that nobody was even awake, but with each member he saw up and about, he wondered if he was the only one who had still been asleep. 

Nonetheless, Johnny and Yuta come barrelling into the dorm and up to where Doyoung and Taeyong are, twin grins on their face which makes Doyoung feel like they’re up to no good. 

“Good morning!” they greet simultaneously, and if Doyoung is being quite honest, it creeps him out a little. But he’s a good friend, so he doesn’t say anything about it. 

“Morning,” Taeyong draws, and out of the corner of his eye, Doyoung sees him fiddling around for a snack from the bag. Of course he was. 

“Good morning,” Doyoung sighs, looking between their happy faces with narrowed eyes. They haven’t stopped staring at him since they came here. “Why are you guys looking at me like that?” 

“Like what?” Yuta asks, tilting his head to one side and feigning innocence. It used to work on Doyoung at one point, and it really didn’t anymore. But that doesn’t stop Yuta from trying. Doyoung admires his efforts and resilience. 

“Like  _ that _ ,” he scowls, and it only works to broaden Johnny and Yuta’s smiles. “Like you’re going to kill me.”

“Kill? No, never,” Yuta gasps, shaking his head and sending his bleached hair all over the place. His earrings shake a lot too. 

“But kidnap? Absolutely,” Johnny grins, and before Doyoung can even fully process his words, Johnny is grabbing his hand and pulling him out of their dorm, courtesy of Yuta standing ready with the door open.

“Have fun!” Taeyong simply calls as he watches them leave, and while Doyoung sputters at how casual he sounds, he doesn’t think this is quite an out of ordinary sight. And maybe that in itself is the problem, but he doesn’t pay it and mind now. 

“Where are you taking me?” Doyoung whines, almost tripping over his feet as he tries to keep up with Johnny’s long legs, which in turn, means long strides. It’s not like he’s even on the shorter end of the scale, it’s just that whenever he’s put up against Johnny, he feels smaller than Taeil. 

“Nowhere far,” Yuta assures, suddenly grabbing his other hand and pulling him forward faster. The fact that all Doyoung is wearing on his feet are socks doesn’t help him from trying not to fall on his face, and he internally mourns how he has to chuck these into his hamper when he gets back. There’s no way he’s going to drag these dirty socks back onto their floor. 

“Feels far enough,” he comments as they keep running down the corridor of their floor, and Johnny seems to forego the elevator, and instead open the doors to the staircase. The last thing Doyoung likes to do in the morning is cardio, but it seems like the older two don’t pay any mind to that fact. “Stairs? This early in the morning?” 

“It’s already almost 1:00 pm,” Yuta points out, at the same time Johnny urges, “Just come.” And now they’re pulling him up the stairs. 

It’s a long few flights, and Doyoung feels thoroughly winded when they finally reach the top (which makes Johnny barely breaking a sweat all the more insufferable), facing the door which leads them to the roof. 

“What are we doing here?” he asks suspiciously, acutely aware of how much snow is on the rooftop. He used to head up here frequently enough during the cooler summer nights, sometimes to read until the sunset, and then sometimes to just sing to himself, or even just for the peaceful atmosphere. 

“Johnny and I,” Yuta starts, opening the rooftop door just a smidge, only enough for Yuta himself to look out. Doyoung tries to look around him to take a peek as well, but Yuta closes the door before he can. “Set up something for you this morning.”

While that would explain why they were already awake, it doesn’t explain what it is exactly that they did. 

“In the snow?” Doyoung questions, and then proceeds to promptly yelp when Johnny picks him up, quite literally sweeping him off of his feet. “Hyung! Put me down!” 

And Johnny does, but only after he and Yuta have walked out onto the rooftop, where the snow crunches beneath the soles of their shoes, and the cold air bites all of their cheeks. Doyoung doesn’t know what they’re doing up here, and can’t see very well either, until Johnny has plopped him down onto a, thankfully dry, bench, where he yelps again, given how cold it is. 

Only then, does Doyoung take in the setup Yuta was talking about. 

The bench he’s sitting on has two curtain-veil looking pieces of fabric framing either side, as well as some flower petals strewn across the length of the bench. There’s a small wooden table in front of him, with nothing but a DSLR camera sitting on top of it. 

“What’s this for? Am I getting married? Is my birthday gift a husband?” he jokes, and it makes the other two laugh. Johnny is the one who picks up the camera, and Yuta comes to sit next to him, his hands immediately brushing Doyoung’s hair out of his face. 

“No, but maybe next year,” Yuta says, and his teeth clatter together a bit. “We’re here to take your Instagram photos.” 

Doyoung’s smile falls right off of his face. Can Yuta go  _ one  _ day without bringing up his Instagram? 

“And you ruined it,” Doyoung sighs dramatically, batting Yuta’s hands away when he starts pulling his hair in weird directions. “I’m not even wearing makeup! And it’s freezing up here,” he whines, but Yuta doesn’t pay it any mind, and simply arranges the petals around again nicely from where they were blown around from the wind. 

“You don’t need makeup,” Johnny coos, like a mother coddling her child. It’s oddly fitting for Johnny, while also almost making Doyoung scrunch his face at the comparison. “Just sit pretty and let the photographer work his magic.”

“Did we have to do this on a freezing cold day?” Doyoung asks through a shiver, glaring up at Johnny, and Yuta now that the latter has left the bench to stand next to the older man. “Couldn’t we have done this before the broadcast called for snow?” 

“No,” Johnny and Yuta answer in sync, and Doyoung rolls his eyes. 

“It has to be taken on your birthday, it’s a birthday post,” Yuta explains, as if it were the most obvious thing. “ _ And  _ the sun is out right now! What more could you want when taking a picture?” 

Doyoung guesses Yuta has a point, and when Johnny starts positioning himself to start taking photos, Doyoung doesn’t fight it anymore. The three of them are already up here in the freezing cold, he might as well get some pictures for it. So what if they’re probably not going to be Instagram worthy at the end? He still appreciates their gesture, setting this up in the early morning and dragging him up here despite the chilling weather. 

“Oh yes, that’s right!” Johnny comments in English, crouching down to find a new angle to take his pictures. He keeps whistling and complimenting Doyoung, causing Yuta to join in. “You’re doing fantastic, you model often? I could sign you with a company!” 

“Oh, so sexy,” Yuta says in awe, and it has Doyoung stifling a laugh into his hand. 

His hair is windswept and he isn’t wearing any makeup; he really doubts he looks sexy. But Yuta was a great hype man like that, so Doyoung takes his words in stride. 

When he declares they’ve taken more than enough photos, Johnny’s fingers are shaking, Yuta is jumping up and down for warmth, and Doyoung’s whole frame is shivering. 

“Carry him again,” Yuta says to Johnny, removing the camera from around the taller man’s neck, and looping it around his own. “Why would the birthday boy walk?” 

Doyoung rolls his eyes, but doesn’t protest when Johnny crouches down in front of him, offering his back for a piggy back ride. If it were any other day, he’d probably deny the babying, but seeing as he’s  _ cold  _ and  _ not  _ wearing any shoes, he grabs onto Johnny’s shoulders and wraps his legs around his waist, letting Johnny carry him all the way back down to the fifth floor. 

Like the cheaters they are, Johnny and Yuta wait for an elevator on the way down, all while Doyoung complains about how they didn’t need to run up all those stairs to get to the rooftop in the first place. 

By the time Yuta is opening the door back into the fifth floor dorm, Doyoung has managed to regain some feeling in his toes, as well his fingers. Johnny deposits him onto the couch, and then says he’ll fetch them all heat packs. 

Doyoung and Yuta wait in the living room, rubbing their hands together and blowing hot air onto their dry skin. Doyoung takes this time to throw his socks off, and makes a mental note to moisturize his hands as soon as he can. 

Johnny comes back with hot packs the same time the front door opens for the nth time, and Doyoung is starting to wonder if everyone always just casually barged in, and he’s just noticing it now. 

“Hey Jae,” Yuta greets, and Jaehyun, who didn’t seem to notice any of their presence in the living room, freezes upon seeing them all. 

“What are you doing here?” he asks Yuta, but he doesn’t even wait for an answer before his eyes snap to Doyoung. “What are  _ you  _ doing here?”

Doyoung has half the mind to laugh, but he furrows his eyebrows instead. He still feels a bit too frozen to laugh. 

“I live here?” Doyoung answers, like it was obvious. “The real question should be what  _ you’re  _ doing here.”

Jaehyun is acting like he’s been caught red handed, which Doyoung guesses isn’t too far from the truth, when he notices that Jaehyun is hiding something behind his back. 

He’s about to ask what it is, and his lips part just to do so, but Jaehyun is striding over to the couch before he can, and thrusting something into his arms. 

“Happy birthday hyung,” he says, dimples sinking into his cheeks and his smile sweeter than candy. Doyoung smiles up at him just because of Jaehyun’s sheer cuteness before he looks down to what the younger has shoved into his arms. 

At first glance, he’s not too sure what it is, but after a few seconds, his brain registers it as a stuffed animal. And it’s not just  _ any  _ stuffed animal—after examining its features, Doyoung is able to recognize that it’s the same type of stuffed penguin Doyoung already has on his bed. The difference this time though, is the scarf around the penguin and the hat above his head, as well as the glasses. 

It’s adorable. 

“A friend,” Jaehyun says out of nowhere after a few seconds go by without a reaction from Doyoung. Just from his tone, Doyoung can tell Jaehyun is a little nervous. He loves the gift, he was just having a hard time processing how Jaehyun had managed to find another one from the same line. “For Dochi.” 

“For Dochi,” Doyoung repeats, but there’s something in his tone which makes him sound like a mother, and while he does once more scrunch his face internally at the comparison, he has no other words to describe how endeared he is by Jaehyun’s present. “Do you have a name?”

Jaehyun mumbles something incomprehensible, and before Doyoung can ask what he said, Jaehyun tacks on, “But obviously, you can name it.”

“No, no, what did you say? I couldn't hear you,” Doyoung asks again, and he hears Johnny snicker from his one side, but doesn’t pay it any mind. 

The tips of Jaehyun’s ears are flushed red, and while they’re as endearing as they always are, Doyoung tries not to focus on that, and instead focuses on what Jaehyun had been trying to say. With a look of his eyes, he silently encourages Jaehyun to tell him. It seems to work, since Jaehyun sighs and says a bit louder,

“Dochi and Doyo,” he mumbles, and it has Doyoung’s lips spreading into a smile before he can think twice about that. 

That’s so  _ adorable.  _ So  _ precious.  _ Dochi and Doyo. 

“That’s so cute,” Doyoung breathes out, looking between the newly named plush,  _ Doyo _ , and Jaehyun. At this moment, he’s not too sure which one is cuter. Maybe it’s Jaehyun, maybe it’s Doyo. All he knows is that Dochi is going to be  _ very _ happy with the new company. “Oh my God. Let me—I’m putting them together right now.”

Doyoung springs up from his seat on the couch right after announcing that, walking briskly to his bedroom while ignoring the other three’s chuckling, and feeling grateful that he didn’t feel lazy this morning and actually made his bed. Dochi is sitting there like he usually is, and Doyoung feels somewhat like a proud parent as he sets Doyo up next to him. 

Since they look so similar, with only a few appearance distinctions, Doyoung feels like they really do look like family. And they look so terribly endearing this way. Doyoung doesn’t think he’s going to be able to let it go, for at least a while. 

In the middle of his internal squeal-fest about how cute his bed now looks, there’s three knocks in rapid succession on his bedroom door, and then someone is waking in without waiting for an answer. 

“Hyung~” a familiarly blood boiling voice sing-songs, and Doyoung can already feel his patience start to run thin. Or maybe he’s just terribly biased towards their bickering dynamic, but either way, Doyoung takes a deep breath before turning around to face their youngest, who’s standing in the threshold of his bedroom. “Doyoungie hyung,” he repeats, but this time he’s batting his eyelashes, and Doyoung fights a full body shiver. 

“What do you want?” Doyoung whines, far past the point of trying to instill his seniority with Donghyuck. He tossed that aside a long time ago, and now he just accepts that Donghyuck is going to be an adorable brat wherever he goes. Doyoung can’t say he truly hates it. Donghyuck is charming like that. 

“Food,” Donghyuck easily answers, and Doyoung should’ve expected it. Donghyuck is always asking him to eat. Once again, he can’t say he hates it. “Let’s go have lunch! My treat for the birthday boy.”

Doyoung is suspicious right off the bat—and maybe he shouldn’t be. It does nothing but show his character towards his dongsaeng, but he can’t help it. He’s fallen loser to this trick of Donghyuck’s (admittedly) many times before, his clever and insufferable brain, and he won’t be fooled once more, on his birthday at that. 

“Show me your wallet,” he says, eyes narrowed as he watches Donghyuck roll his eyes and fish for something in his pocket. He ends up pulling out his wallet, waving it around for show before opening it up and pulling out his bank card. He waves that around too. 

“Are you going to make me pay?” Doyoung asks bluntly, and since he’s so blunt, he should’ve expected Donghyuck’s answers of, “Honestly, take your chances.”

And so, with a sigh which is more dramatic than it needs to be because he’s doing it just for show, Doyoung fixes Donghyuck with a long,  _ long  _ look before nodding his head. 

“Fine, fine! Get out, give me twenty minutes to get ready,” he mutters, and Donghyuck pumps a fist into the air victoriously. You’d think it was his own birthday, and Doyoung had just been roped into paying for  _ his  _ lunch. 

“Twenty minutes? Who are you trying to impress? Me?” he asks, batting his eyelashes once more and pulling out that smug face which haunts Doyoung in his nightmares. 

“Shut up,” he grumbles, closing the door on Donghyuck as he backs him out of his room. “Better be choosing a nice place, or else I’m going to regret going outside in the cold.”

“We’re talking about food hyung, I always choose a good place,” Donghyuck scoffs, and Doyoung just rolls his eyes again before closing the door. 

He gets ready relatively quickly, and doesn’t put much work into it when he realizes that Donghyuck is right—it’s just them, and no one else. He didn’t need to act like they were going out on a schedule, or like there were going to be cameras around. It’s just him, Donghyuck, and a nice lunch which will (probably) be courtesy of his younger friend on his birthday. 

Yeah. Like normal people.

Doyoung steps out of his bedroom the same time he sees Johnny walking down the hall towards his own. They both stop since they’re in each other’s way, and Johnny whistles as he looks Doyoung up and down.

“You clean up nicely,” Johnny comments, and once more, Doyoung rolls his eyes. There was a point in time where comments like these from Johnny would make his cheeks tint pink, but that was before he spent a year on tour with the man. Doyoung has seen things now, has  _ done  _ things now. The easiest way to say it is that he’ll never be the same man he was before. 

“Don’t act like you haven’t seen me dressed up before,” Doyoung bites back, just because it’s in his nature to. It hasn’t gotten him into trouble just yet. “And this isn’t even half of it.” he adds on haughtily, feeling the need to. There really isn’t one, but he can be dramatic today. It’s his birthday. 

“Of course it isn’t,” Johnny smiles, patting Doyoung’s head in the way that has the younger one constantly debating if it’s condescending or a sign of affection. “Donghyuck is waiting for you.”

Doyoung hums as he finally walks around Johnny and to the foyer, where Donghyuck is indeed waiting, leaned up against the wall with his shoes on, and his puffy jacket swallowing his small frame. Well, smaller than Doyoung’s, that is. Or were they the same height? 

“Awesome, let’s go,” Donghyuck says upon seeing him, and Doyoung makes quick work of putting his shoes and patting his pockets for his phone, and for his wallet, just in case. 

There’s a car waiting for them outside of their building, and Donghyuck tells the driver an address Doyoung himself isn’t familiar with. 

He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t looking forward to some time to catch up with Donghyuck, since they're constantly either exhausted from schedules, or constantly hole themselves up in their respective rooms. 

It’s nice, Doyoung admits, as it always is, to catch up with Donghyuck and hear his funny stories which leave a fond ache in his ribs. Donghyuck is funny, and he’s no doubt exaggerating the stories he’s retelling, but they’re entertaining, so Doyoung can’t complain. 

“And you?” Donghyuck asks as they’re about halfway to their location, or at least, according to Donghyuck they are. “What’ve you been up to, old man?”

“Who are you calling old?” Doyoung scoffs, adjusting himself in his seat defensively, as if it’d do anything. “You should see your Taeyong hyung—”

“You’re only a year apart,” Donghyuck deadpans. “Not even—seven months.”

Doyoung ignores the comment, and then proceeds to tell Donghyuck about how he’s been up to nothing since he came back from visiting his mother, and how he keeps talking to Kun about filming another song cover, but how they never get around to actually doing it. 

“Kun is busy these days,” Doyoung sighs, fishing his phone out from his pocket when he feels it vibrate. He looks through his notifications as he continues to talk. “Too busy making his own music to play the piano for me,” he playfully sulks, despite being very proud of his friend. 

Johnny had sent him the photos they took this morning, and a few of the younger members have texted him happy birthday with various different emojis and emoticons. Jaemin’s message is littered with hearts, and Doyoung can’t help but smile. Shotaro’s message sounds a bit formal, but Doyoung thinks it’s endearing nonetheless. 

The driver announces that they’ve arrived at the restaurant a few minutes later, and Donghyuck and Doyoung thank him before they exit the car, the cold slapping them in the faces. 

“Ah, it’s cold,” Doyoung whines, huddling his body closer to Donghyuck. He's learned that Donghyuck is quite like a human furnace. Very useful at times. “Let’s go, let’s go. Inside,” he pesters, and he doesn’t have to be looking at Donghyuck to know the latter is rolling his eyes. 

They’re inside soon enough via Doyoung’s request, and the ambiance is quiet. The lighting is low, but it’s very comfortable as well. There aren’t too many people around, for which Doyoung is grateful. 

They’re seated shortly, and then flipping through a menu. It doesn’t take long to decide what to eat, since Donghyuck wants to try everything, and Doyoung decides that he might as well try new things too if Donghyuck is paying. In the end, they order a plethora of dishes between the two of them, and wait for their food to come over amicable and light conversation.

While eating though, Doyoung finds it hard to keep his laughter to a minimum, as to not disturb the other patrons. Donghyuck finds this of great amusement, and he looks just as smug as Doyoung thinks he is. 

At the end of their meal, Doyoung notices they’ve been sitting around for almost three hours. He has no idea how time has gone by so quickly, but he’s very glad he got to spend this time with Donghyuck. It’s rare they get to, despite living together, and it’s appreciated. 

Donghyuck stays true to his words and actually does end up paying their bill, and Doyoung might’ve felt bad once he saw the total, if Donghyuck hadn’t once taken his card and emptied out an entire vending machine with it. 

Their drive back is spent a bit quieter compared to the one to the restaurant, but that’s a given considering the food coma they’re about to experience. Maybe Donghyuck’s treat ties into Taeyong’s snacks. Maybe they really were going to stuff him into the oven. And maybe he wouldn’t mind—the oven is much warmer than he feels now in the cold anyways. 

They trudge back onto the fifth floor sluggishly, and Doyoung debates taking a nap, wondering briefly if Johnny would even let him sleep peacefully, even if it was only for a couple hours. 

He doesn’t get much of a choice though, because as soon as his shoes are off of his feet, a hand grabs his arm and pulls him into his bedroom.

“I've been getting dragged around all day—am I ragdoll?” Doyoung groans before looking at who’s pulling him along. 

Kim Jungwoo, obviously. He’s not even surprised. He doesn’t even know how he got into the fifth floor (belatedly, he remembers that members barging in might just be a regular occurrence)—and what on earth was Mark doing sitting on his bed?

“Happy birthday!” Mark greets happily, and okay, Doyoung isn’t mad about why he’s on his bed anymore. Mark was too cute for that anyways, with the way his eyes crinkle in a smile as he looks up at Doyoung with his black glasses framing his eyes. “Come hyung, come sit,” he urges, patting the seat next to him.

“What are you two up to?” Doyoung sighs, unwrapping his scarf from around his neck and discarding his jacket onto the back of his table’s chair before sitting down next to Mark. “And did you wait for me in my room?”

“Technicalities,” Jungwoo brushes off, and Doyoung shouldn’t be surprised. What does surprise him, however, is when Mark pulls his guitar into his lap. He had failed to notice the instrument before, but now he stares at it, as Mark strums a few strings quietly. “Birthday song time.”

“Birthday song?” Doyoung repeats confusedly, but it doesn’t last for long. 

Because Mark is strumming a familiar song on his guitar, and Jungwoo is humming along to the tune for the first ten seconds. It’s a very familiar song, the chords Mark is strumming tugs at a corner of his brain, but he’s not too sure which song it is exactly. 

He doesn’t have to wait too long to find out though, because Jungwoo is singing the lyrics with his soft voice, and it hits Doyoung which song this is exactly. 

It’s not a popular song, and it’s not an original piece. It’s just something Doyoung and Jungwoo had heard on the radio a year or so ago, a song Doyoung didn’t think he’d remember. 

But he did, that much is obvious by the way he’s singing, and by the way he had made Mark learn the chords. 

Jungwoo’s voice is soft, Mark’s music is calming, and there's bright smiles on both their faces. It makes Doyoung smile too, and he finds himself being pulled up onto his feet by Jungwoo, who holds his hand and gives him a twirl. 

Jungwoo is ridiculous, he can’t be taken seriously half the time, but he’s  _ fun.  _ He’s so fun, and he’s so refreshing. He’s like Donghyuck, in that sense. As much as Doyoung would like to put a sock in their mouths, they’re unique, and that’s what he loves about them. 

Jungwoo dances with him, and Mark laughs as he plays the guitar. He feels like this scene is something straight out of one of those American coming of age films he’s watched with Johnny, but he can’t bring himself to hate it. People should live out cliches more often, if it makes them feel as happy as Doyoung is currently feeling. 

As Mark prolongs the last note of the song, Doyoung is laughing into Jungwoo’s shoulder, and the latter is giggling into his ear. He’s about to say thank you for their song, but just as he opens his mouth, Mark starts playing another song.

This one though, Doyoung recognizes right off the bat. Just as he’s about to turn around and roll his eyes fondly at Mark, the door to his bedroom opens again, and in comes the rest of his members, singing ‘Happy Birthday’ along to the music Mark strums. 

It’s cheesy, incredibly so, and it’s ridiculous. It shouldn’t make Doyoung feel as warm as it does, but that’s the beauty in friendships turned to family, he guesses. 

Taeyong is one holding his cake, the candles illuminating his face in funny shadows. The rest follow behind him, and Doyoung can see Johnny filming on his phone. Donghyuck’s voice is the loudest as they sing, but Yuta and Taeil come in as strong seconds. 

He feels Jungwoo’s arms fall from around him from when they were dancing, just to join along and sing. 

His heart feels warm, and he feels like a fool.

He  _ is  _ a fool, they’re  _ all  _ fools. But Doyoung loves these fools, and he wouldn’t want to be anywhere else right now. 

“Make a wish!” Jaehyun cheers once they're done signing, and Doyoung rolls his eyes. 

Nonetheless, they all countdown from three, and when they reach ‘one’, Doyoung looks at each of their faces, closes his eyes, blows his candles out, and wishes for a brighter future. 

Together. 


End file.
